Why can’t CD packaging be greener and cheaper? That’s the question that Emthelo, a supply chain consultancy specialising in the entertainment industry asked itself last year. The result of their deliberations is the MINTpack, a new, green, economical CD sleeve, as Emthelo Managing Director Olivier Durand explains to Emma Beddington.
Consumers want cloud storage, but not necessarily if they have to pay for it, according to a recent report from PriceWaterhouseCoopers, ‘Storing Entertainment Content in the Cloud’. Or, as the report stated more bluntly, “Until there is mass consumer adoption of digital lockers, it is critical that digital locker offerings remain free.” The UltraViolet concept appeared not to be perceived as a particularly key benefit of digital lockers.
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Corel has announced that it has completed the acquisition of the Roxio business from Rovi Corporation. Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed. “We want Roxio’s customers and partners to know that these products are an important addition to our portfolio and they will have a great home with Corel,” said Shawn Cadeau, Senior Vice President, Global Marketing at Corel. “We look forward to bringing together the best of what Corel and Roxio have to offer as we work to deliver even richer, more rewarding experiences to our customers.”
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Verizon and Coinstar have announced the formation of a joint venture aimed, they say, at “offering instantly available online and mobile content with immediate access to physical media through rental kiosks”. The services will offer the Redbox rental model combined with video on-demand streaming and downloads from Verizon.
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Audio separation solutions provider Audionamix has announced the newest addition to its source separation tools: Dialogue Isolation, used to separate dialogue from music and effects tracks. “Just as Music Dissociation took the market by storm when it was released in 2010, Dialogue Isolation has the potential to help back-catalog content owners re-release thousands of older titles and create new revenue streams that otherwise would not have existed,” commented Audionamix VP of Production Rick Silva.
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Sony Corporation has announced that Kazuo Hirai has been appointed as President and Chief Executive Officer, effective April 1, 2012, in what could be as a challenging time. Sony announced a loss in Q3 last year, and expects more loss and lower sales for fiscal 2012 than its earlier forecast. Sir Howard Stringer, currently Chairman, CEO and President, will become Chairman of the Board of Directors in June, 2012.
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Sky has announced plans to launch a service allowing customers to watch some of its most popular content over the internet. Or, as pundits put it, taking on the likes of LoveFilm, Netflix and the soon to be launched YouView. The internet TV service will open up Sky’s content to those that do not subscribe to its current pay-TV offering and, says the company “taking advantage of the rapid growth in broadband-connected devices.
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Following the recent announcement of a 19-date tour to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Thick As A Brick, Jethro Tull front man Ian Anderson will release a sequel to the original album. The new album will be released as a standard jewel case CD and digital download, and in a Special Edition 2-disc package with DVD featuring 5.1 stereo mixes, 24-bit stereo mix, video of the making of the album, interviews with the musicians and Ian Anderson reading the lyrics in various locations.
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Epson has announced the Discproducer PP-50BD, a Blu-ray model aimed at users creating up to 400 discs per month for archiving or publishing. Leonard Beckmann, product manager for Epson Europe, says: “The tens of thousands of Epson Discproducers already installed have demonstrated their reliability in various sectors, including medicine, education, entertainment and marketing, as well as the duplication industry. The PP-50BD now offers the same great value for money to the archiving sector.”
Continue reading »ADR – Advanced Digital Research, Germany-based manufacturer for duplicators and printers has announced the latest generation of its Rollcoater: the Rollcoater II , a UV coating device to seal inkjet printed discs. The Rollcoater is already installed in over 100 facilities worldwide, and the new version features a new design and some technical improvements.
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The UltraViolet initiative (the online digital library that frees you to choose how and where you want to enjoy your movies and TV shows) has come under attack with the recent Paramount activity on that front. According to one analyst, pricing strategies indicate that studios are paying only lip service to digital delivery, and their interests remain firmly rooted in physical media.
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Second screening is the new way to consume broadcast content, with companies beginning to look at ways to control the way consumers second screen - and how to make money out of it. George Cole provides an overview of this 21st century viewing trend.
Second screen is making waves in the broadcast, social media and video worlds. In essence, second screen involves using a second display device, like a smartphone, laptop or tablet, while watching television. Many people are now second screening: research by Nielsen found that 70% of tablet users and 68% of smartphone owners used their device while watching television. “There are a lot of stats that show that a very large percentage of people who watch TV are doing it with a second screen on their lap,” says Chuck Parker, former Chief Commercial Officer of Technicolor.
Fingerprinting or watermarking? Is there a difference and does it make a difference? Anti-piracy specialist Richard Atkinson explains what they are and how they work but, most of all, why they are important for content management – and leveraging it for monetization – as much as content protection.
In comparing watermarking and fingerprinting, some aspects are similar and some are different. But, more importantly, as they continue to evolve, those differences are becoming less important. The main issue will be how it is used, because the business is driving things: it’s not just about content protection anymore, but about content leverage. With these capabilities, I can know exactly what the content is (whether there’s a mark in it or whether there’s metadata about it)...and leverage that knowledge in real-time.
Following the best Christmas sales ever for Amazon.com’s Kindle devices, the total e-reader category is expected to once again deliver double-digit growth this year, Jill Bilzi learns, as she looks at how it continues to revolutionize the publishing industry and forever change ‘books’ as we know them.
The exploding demand for digital reading devices and downloaded e- books during the fourth quarter of 2011 brought a flurry of news among the leading suppliers in the market.
Music on CD dead? Not so, say the fans - retro continues to be cool and collectors continue to collect. Debbie Galante Block talks to designers and artists who listen to fans and give them what they want in terms of desirable physical media.
Like vinyl, music packaging was scaled back by major record labels way before consumers were ready to let it go. Also, like vinyl, it’s back! With the advent of digital music, it originally seemed that designers were doomed to designing postage size pictures for iTunes, but artists and their true fans have clamoured for more.
The concept of the interactive documentary as something controlled by the producer is changing, as Michael Mascioni reveals.
Interactive documentaries have traditionally been conceived as a genre allowing users to select and explore different informational segments, elements, and themes in a framework largely circumscribed by the producers. Now, that concept is expanding significantly with the rise of ‘collaborative documentaries’ that have adopted crowdsourcing elements and extensive use of user-generated content.
